chosen family

plural chosen families

1. A group of people who are not biologically related but who have formed a supportive group that fills the role normally expected to be supplied by the family one is born into.

   ...but when a sudden change of events jeopardizes their summer in gay paradise, their bonds as a chosen family are pushed to the limit.

   2022 December 23, Taylor Henderson, “Matt Rogers Reveals Potential Ideas for Fire Island 2 Sequel”, in Out Magazine

   2 more examples

   De La Cruz's writing offers caregiving models that blend biological and chosen family, a narrative strategy central to the contemporary trans fiction of Casey Plett.

   2020, Marty Fink, Forget Burial

   But while partners are an integral part of the enduring chosen family for lesbians and gay men in the United States, for hijras and kotis, their pantis or husbands are categorically not family

   1994, Michael W. McCann, Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization

   Synonyms: family of choice, found family, kith and kin · Antonyms: biological family